that the nation should be immediately placed in a state of defence, and all the able-bodied men mustered under their usual leaders. The royal assent was refused to this act, which raised another storm of denunciation against the English. Some of the members talked of rather dying like freemen than living as slaves; and when attempts were made to stem their passions, they said, if denied the freedom of expressing their opinions and wishes in parliament, they would proclaim them with their swords. 33

This fierce antagonism between the two kingdoms could not endure, and in the face of all obstacles the Union was approaching. Parliament reassembled on the 6th of July, 1704. The Marquis of Tweeddale was royal commissioner; and the Queen's letter expressed the gravity of the situation. She appealed to parliament to settle the succession, but they directly passed a resolution not to name a successor to the crown till a satisfactory treaty with England for the regulation of trade was concluded, and meanwhile adopted measures to secure the independence of the kingdom. The Act of Security was again passed, and now received the royal assent. Under this act the Scots began to arm, and once more prepared to give battle in earnest to their stronger enemy, if he should finally refuse to accede to reasonable demands. 34

The English parliament in 1705 passed an act authorising a treaty of Union to be negotiated between England and Scotland. The Crown was empowered to appoint commissioners to meet and treat with any body of commissioners authorised by the Scotch parliament, and to place the result of their proceedings before the Queen and the parliaments of both kingdoms. The last clause of the bill restricted the commissioners from making "any alteration of the liturgy, ceremonies, discipline, or government of the Church, as by law established".

The Scotch parliament met at Edinburgh on the 28th of June, 1705, and the proposal of the English parliament for a

There was a

Union was to be the great business before it. change in the ministry, and the Duke of Argyle appeared as the royal commissioner. He was deemed the most likely man to promote the important measure which had become necessary for the security and the peace, the happiness and the civilisation of the people of the Island. The task was still surrounded with many difficulties. The Jacobites were a strong and compact party, and determined to oppose the Union at every step; and if possible to defeat all attempts to settle the crown on the Revolution principles. But a majority of the parliament resolved to hold to the demands for free trade and colonial rights: these were the views of the National party led by Fletcher, and yet some of the chief men of this party were strongly opposed to the incorporating provisions of the Treaty. In the early part of the session various acts were introduced and discussed, touching the currency, the herring fishing, prohibiting the importation of goods, and other matters connected with trade; but the subsequent and more important resolutions regarding the Union rendered these of less value. 35

On the 13th of July, a draft of the act and commission for the treaty with England was read in parliament; and on the 25th of August, it was again brought before the house. A long and hot debate ensued on it, and several amendments were proposed. But the act was carried on the 1st of September, authorising the appointment of commissioners; and the Duke of Athol, with a considerable number of followers, protested. The same day the question of who should nominate the commissioners was brought up. Were they to be appointed by parliament, or referred to the discretion of the Queen? The Duke of Hamilton moved that the nomination of the commissioners should be left to the Queen. Fletcher of Saltoun bitterly opposed this, and the Jacobites joined him with all their might; and the point was warmly debated, but in vain. Hamilton's motion was

35 Acts Parl. Scot., Vol. XI., pp. 205, 213-219, et seq.; Hume's Diary, pp. 62-70.

carried by a majority of forty. The Duke of Athol again protested, and the Jacobites adhered to him.36 The Jacobites were extremely enraged at this vote, as they considered it the key of the position; and one of their leaders who recorded his protest along with Athol, expressed his judgment of the matter in these words:"From this day we may date the commencement of Scotland's ruin; and any person that will be at the pains to reflect upon the management of this affair must be the more enraged when he sees how easily it might have been, and yet was not, prevented: for if the first restricting clause (which was lost by the unaccountable neglect of some members) had been carried, we should not have had one word more of the Treaty; or had the nomination been left to the parliament, those of the commissioners that represented the barons would have been so well chosen that they might easily have obstructed the Treaty from being brought to such a conclusion as afterwards happened."

"' 37

The scope of the act indicated the general object of the Treaty. But it contained one special condition, "that the commissioners shall not treat of or concerning any alteration of the worship, discipline, and government of the Church of this kingdom, as now by law established " 38

The number of the Union Commissioners was thirty-one on each side. On the Scotch side the Queen or her advisers had exercised a marked discretion in naming the list of commissioners. A well-considered effort was certainly made to represent all the different parties of the nation; even the Jacobites were represented by one of their ablest men, Sir George Lockhart of Carnwath. This Jacobite leader gives a list of the names of all the commissioners on both sides, and adds the following remarks on them:-"All these were of the Court or Whig interest, ex

36 Acts Parl. Scot., Vol. XI., pp. 218, 224, 235-237; also App., pp. 83, 86-87; Hume's Diary, pp. 70-71.

37 Lockhart's Memoirs, Vol. I., pp. 133-134.

38 Acts Parl. Scot., Vol. XI., p. 295.

cept Mr. Lockhart in the Scots, and the Archbishop of York in the English commission. This last, as was reported, was named merely out of respect to the dignity of the office he bore, but would not be present so much as once at the Treaty; the other because being my Lord Warton's nephew, they expected to carry him off. And as he was surprised at his being named, so he had no inclination for the employment, and was at first resolved not to have accepted it; but his friends and those of his party believed he might be serviceable by giving an account how matters were carried on, and prevailed with him to alter his resolution. . . . And having communicated to them his difficulties, he desired their advice and direction how he should behave, and particularly whether or not he should protest and enter his dissent against those measures, being resolved to receive instructions from them as a warrant for his procedure, and to justify his conduct: to whom they all unanimously returned this answer, that if he should protest, he could not well continue longer to meet with the other commissioners; and if he entered his dissent, it would render him odious to them, so as he would be utterly incapable to learn anything that might be useful afterwards in opposing their designs; whereas if he sat quiet, concealed his opinions as much as possible, they expecting to persuade him to leave his old friends and party, would not be so shy, and he might make discoveries of their designs, and thereby do a singular service to his country. Therefore they agreed in advising him neither to protest nor dissent, nor do anything that might discover his opinions and design, but to sit silent, making his remarks of everything that passed, and to remain with them as long as he possibly could; and then at last, before signing of the result of the Treaty, to find some excuse or other of absenting himself." 39

enormous.

The difficulties of the task before the commissioners were Almost every kind of interest which absorbs the human mind, conflicting ideas, opinions, and principles, the 39 Lockhart's Memoirs, Vol. I., pp. 141-143.

opposition springing out of national pride and vanity, a mass of traditional and inherited prejudice, and adverse sentiments and feelings the growth of ages-all had to be set aside and overcome. Thus it was, that when the Union was concluded, the conflicting elements, adverse to its spirit, were so great in Scotland, that a generation or two passed away ere the blessings and the advantages of it to the people of this kingdom began to be appreciated and universally recognised. Indeed all the Jacobites believed and proclaimed that Scotland was utterly ruined by the Union; and many others not influenced by Jacobite feelings were strongly disposed to take the most gloomy view of it, and to murmur over it, though it was one of the greatest events in the history of the Island.

The commissioners met at Whitehall on the 16th of April, 1706. There had before been many attempts to form a union of the two kingdoms, but this time the commissioners on both sides really wished to accomplish it; and they were fully impressed with the vast importance of the matter, and prepared to make every reasonable concession for the mutual advantage of both nations. Their proceedings from the beginning to the end bore the impress of sincerity and earnestness. They proceeded methodically, and approached the subject before them step by step, from both sides, by turns in regular order; and acted with remarkable tact and judgment. Their whole proceedings form an admirable specimen of methodical negotiation. They finished their arduous undertaking on the 23rd of July; and in these three months, they went through a great amount of work. Before putting the Treaty into the form of articles, they had to discuss and to deliberate on many subjects and complicated points: such as the relative taxation, the customs, the excise, and the revenue of both kingdoms, the coinage, weights and measures; the number of the Scotch representatives in the united parliament both in the Upper and in the Lower Houses; and many other difficult questions touching political relations and organisation. According to the terms of the commission, a